A river ripper's trip around the world.

Last minute airborne panic and Haleakala sunrise

Don’t worry, this post has nothing to do with planes. It’s about an incident that occurred during my last session on Maui, and about the most beautiful sunrise on the island of Maui (it’s what they say).

One day before the end of the Maui portion, we were pleasantly surprised with some very nice wind and waves at Kanaha, creating the perfect conditions for the ultimate hawaiian session. I sailed with all the energy I could summon, trying charge as hard as I could on the face of the wave, and trying to jump higher and higher each time I’d head out. After a few tacks, I was heading out at full speed, and spotted a gnarly wave breaking pretty far ahead of me. In those circumstances, you can either head upwind (towards the already broken section of the wave, the whitewater) and hope that the wind is strong enough to push you over, or you can head downwind (towards the unbroken section of the wave, the ramp for jumping), automatically gaining speed. I was too late to head upwind, I wouldn’t have made it, so I decided to bear off (head downwind), and I took a lot, a lot of speed. The problem was that a kite-surfer was riding that same wave, and that he apparently hadn’t seen me. It shouldn’t even have been relevant, as the rider who is headed out has always priority over a rider who is on the wave. He was supposed to stay out of my way, not the other way around. Anyways, because I am cautious, I calculated my approach towards the wave to pass right in front of him. I got on the ramp (which was huge) at full speed, maybe the fastest I ever took a jump, and achieved lift off. The problem is that Mr. Kite-surfer decided to jump off instead of cutting back (returning towards the wave) and we met in mid-air. At about 6-7 m (I’m being conservative) in the air, we collided. We didn’t really hit each other, we simply bumped into each other. No impact, but it was enough to surprise the both of us enough to drop the gear. We didn’t hurt each other, but we were definitely shook up. The lesson is that even when priority is on our side, we still need to be careful and take a few extra meters for safety, because it’s always better to avoid injuries, whichever way you look at it.

On the last day I was on Maui, we woke up a little bit earlier (4:00 am), in order to experience the legendary Haleakala sunset. Mt. Haleakala is one of Maui’s two volcanoes, the one of the eastern side of the island. The drive up is quite entertaining (the angles are very interesting), to the point that we had to change cars twice (!), and takes about an hour and a half. The road takes you all the way in front of the Haleakala crater at 3000m of altitude, which is, in itself, a sight to behold. Then, around 6:45, the sun starts piercing through the few clouds that are higher than the observation point, and it lights up the mesmerizing landscape. It’s quite hard to describe how beautiful it was, so take a look and judge by yourself.

After 15 hours in transit, and quite a fun time running around the airport with a windsurfing quiver under my arm, I’m in New Zealand, although I really haven’t had time to do anything yet, so that will be for next post.